The 25-year-old added the Crystal Palace Player Of The Year award to his recent trophy haul last night following his first Premier League Player of the Month honour for April. Wilfried Zaha has been his club’s outstanding player throughout the 2017-18 campaign, chipping in with goals, assists and making himself the chief creator for the Eagles. Quite simply, Roy Hodgson wouldn’t have been able to pull off his Herculean turnaround at Selhurst Park without him. It’s not that England are bereft of attacking talent, but there’s no doubt their forward line would benefit from his imagination.

Chance is a fine thing. Manchester United didn’t give him one - and neither did England. The FA can’t even say they tried. Gareth Southgate claimed he made it a priority to dissuade Zaha from switching allegiance to Ivory Coast in 2016, but you wouldn’t know it after the 47-year-old chose his Palace team-mate Andros Townsend ahead of him in his first two squads as England boss.

Zaha had already played for England at U19 and U21 level, before the then-national manager Roy Hodgson gave him his first full cap for the senior team in a friendly against Sweden in November 2012. He replaced Raheem Sterling, another debutant on the night, in the 83rd minute.

Advertisement

PA Photos

Just three weeks after Southgate’s second squad announcement for games against Scotland and Spain in 2016, enough was enough for Zaha. He had waited by the phone for four years for another call from England, only to hear nothing, and finally decided to pledge his commitment to Ivory Coast for good. Speaking to the BBC’s Premier League Show in October 2017, Zaha explained his decision, “I had a lot of time to think it over. When I stopped playing for England, I had a four-year gap where I was not picked, no matter what I did. So I just thought OK, fair enough, I'm obviously not good enough'.”

Read next

FA Cup final betting tips and odds

Wondering who to back in Man City and Watford's historic game?

ByGQ

"[It was] Four years without being picked no matter what you do, and nothing at all,” Zaha went on to say. “I have had four years no football, and Ivory Coast want me and are promising me a place in the team, so why would I turn them down? It's feeling loved. And the way they approached me and the conversations we had, they really want me and they could see what I could bring to the team. I feel like I made the right decision.”

Southgate’s reasons for not picking Zaha were weak. He explained that anyone who didn’t have an “inherent desire” to represent their country would not be chosen – something he unfairly didn’t feel was present with Zaha. He also said, “I had three days to pick a squad in October and then in November I had the chance to look a little bit further but we’d won the game in October and I was pleased with the squad.”

It’s perhaps a frivolous discussion, what with Zaha’s loyalty now firmly with Ivory Coast, however it’s one that should provoke deeper examination about how the FA allowed a top-tier talent like the Palace forward to slip through the net. All he needed was a chance.